


i think i might love you

by professorrjlupin



Series: auctober 2020 [2]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Confessions, First Kiss, Fluff, Getting Together, M/M, Mutual Pining, Pre-Relationship, Star Wars References, just a quick feel good fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-18
Updated: 2020-10-18
Packaged: 2021-03-09 01:53:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,889
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27086647
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/professorrjlupin/pseuds/professorrjlupin
Summary: auctober day 18: soulmatesWhen Will realized he was in love, when Nico realized he was in love, and when they told each other. (The moment you realize you're in love with someone, the time is written on your wrist.)
Relationships: Nico di Angelo/Will Solace
Series: auctober 2020 [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1977037
Comments: 10
Kudos: 131





	i think i might love you

Will Solace is not the worrying type. He’s known for staying calm, often being the only collected one in a hectic infirmary. It’s because he’s had years of practice, both in camp and out, of masking his emotions for the sake of others. 

But one Nico di Angelo is going to ruin everything. 

Nico laid in the grass, eyes fluttering in the bright sunlight, mid-day outside the big house. Without the current situation, Will would be glad to see him resting. But now, his pale skin had been replaced with a translucent film so that the green from the grass was bleeding through his arms. Pieces of him would disappear momentarily before coming back thinner than ever, throwing Will’s heart into a frenzy. 

Jason, visiting from his boarding school, knelt over him. He stared up at Will like he was supposed to be carrying the magical cure. (Will knows that look by heart- it drives a wrench into his gut every time.) Will’s first instinct is to check Nico’s pulse, but his hand goes right through the dying boy’s wrist. 

Will starts to sweat. It’s a chill November but that couldn’t stop it from forming across his brow. Jason is speaking but Will can’t hear over rummaging through his medical bag. What can he use on a boy he can’t touch? 

“Okay, Nico, I need you to listen to me,” Will begins, voice straining with the effort to not scream. He goes through the list of questions he wants to ask:  _ why did you shadow travel when I specifically told you it would kill you? Why did I have to find you half dead outside the big house? Were you trying to leave again?  _ Will knows those questions would only throw Nico into a defense mode. Instead, he settles for one that expresses less than half of what he’s feeling. “How far did you travel?” 

Nico shakes his head. At least he can move. 

Will takes out one of the vials of nectar he always carries. He has no clue if it will help, but it’s better than a nervous meltdown. In the frenzy of it all, Will forgets his manners and points at Nico with the vial like it’s a knife. “Nico di Angelo, you  _ have  _ to tell me what you did.” 

Nico, miraculously, has the energy to stare at Will with disdain. Will would slap him if his hand would go through. (He has never slapped anyone before, nor had the urge to, but Nico does weird things to his head.) “Just a short jump-” he begins to mumble before Will loses his cool. 

“Just a  _ short jump!?  _ Nico, I told you not to- gods, look at you! I can’t believe you would’ve-” 

“‘M fine-” 

“Nico di Angelo, if you could take one look at yourself right now, you could not honestly finish that-” Nico chose the perfect time in his rant to close his eyes, and his entire body flickered like a dying fire fly. Will dropped his entire medical bag in shock, all the contents littering the grass. Jason knelt, still useless, gaping at Will, asking him to do something. 

Will didn’t know what to do. 

Tears burned his eyes. His throat clenched, so no more scathing words could come out. He needed to act fast, but what could he do?  _ He couldn’t even touch Nico.  _

Will untwisted the cap of the vial of nectar. “Open your mouth and drink,” he instructed Nico, who was thankfully able to follow the directions. Will poured the drink into his mouth and began to sing a hymn to his father. Once all the nectar was gone, he clutched Nico’s what should be Nico’s hand (the space was way too cold) and continued to sing until his throat burned like it had been drenched in Greek fire. A line of sweat rolled down his nose and fell on top of the grass. Jason had long left with a comment to fetch water, but never returned. 

Will closed his eyes. It hurt to breathe. At least he could feel Nico’s hand in his now. He had to have done something right, then, right? 

“Hey,” Nico said. His voice was too faint. Will opened his eyes. “You’re glowing.” 

Will sighed. His throat burned too much to respond, so he nodded. Glowing was often a side effect of his healing- something that always drew too much attention and embarrassed him. At least Nico was smiling, if the small upwards tick in his mouth was anything to go by. Will wanted to tell him off and then hug him while he cried, but the healing had taken too much of his energy. 

His lecture on staying safe and not leaving Will behind would have to wait. (Will didn’t want to think about what being left behind would entail. He’s officially been friends with Nico for three months, but now he couldn’t imagine his days without his sarcastic remarks, his beautiful dark eyes, and his compassion. The thought of losing that so soon made his eyes burn.)

Instead, he helped Nico off the ground, who was now stable enough to stand, and half-carried him to the infirmary. 

Nico was given his usual cot in the infirmary and two days worth of rest. He was still fascinated by the dim light Will had around him, but he ignored it. His hands were still burning, which was unusual. Usually, the burning went away after he released his patient. But now it’s been minutes, and it still persists. He sat down in one of the chairs outside the patient's area to check for burns when he saw it. 

_ Hey, you’re glowing. - Domenico di Angelo, November 21, 2019.  _

A soulmate mark. 

Will swears he almost died. 

His heart stopped beating and fell into his stomach. He felt cold, then hot, then ecstatic.  _ That’s Nico,  _ he thought.  _ I’m in love with Nico- whose full name is actually Domenico. Huh.  _ A smile took over his face. He was in  _ love.  _ It was definitely a scary feeling- yes, fear was definitely mixed in with his excitement. But the possibility that he could be made for a certain  _ Domenico  _ (oh, he’s never going to let that go) made him swell with happiness. 

He was in  _ love.  _

  
  
  


Nico di Angelo was never one for movies. 

He never enjoyed them for as long as he could remember. Maybe it was his ADHD, or most modern movies being flat money grabs, but he could never sit down and watch one in full. 

Except when there was Will Solace grabbing his hand (something in itself that would make Nico follow any command), dragging him into the Apollo cabin with a rant over  _ how have you lived through the eighties and NEVER seen Star Wars?  _ At that point, Nico couldn’t have said no. Will already had the DVDs out. (All three, because apparently this is a trilogy. How was he going to get through this?) 

Nico’s protests went unheard as he was pushed into the couch. “You’ll love it!” Will exclaimed as he turned on the small television. “I promise. We can watch whatever you want next week.” Nico opened his mouth one last time, but was silenced by Will’s pleading eyes. 

Really, all Will had to do was hold his hand and give him those big eyes and Nico’s heart would melt. He hated admitting it, but the heat rushing up his neck and the urge to look away didn’t help matters. If he tried to speak, all that might come out was some half-Italian mumble, so he just shook his head and focused on the beginning credits of the movie. Nico didn’t have to look to know Will was beaming. 

“You won’t regret this. Star Wars is, like,  _ the  _ best fantasy movie. I watched it when I was eleven for the first time, and I’m still reeling, because  _ that’s  _ how good it is. And if you don’t like it twenty minutes in, I’ll let you go, okay?” 

Nico chanced a glance over his shoulder to Will. “Really?” 

“Yes, because I know for a fact you’re going to enjoy this. Really, there’s no way you can’t. It’s a classic! Wait, shh, it’s on.” Will quickly flipped his attention to the screen like a puppy. 

Twenty minutes came and went. Nico wasn’t too bored- Will kept him distracted with whispered asides and trivia about the film. Nico was actually watching Will more than the movie. How was he supposed to remain focused with him so close? With him laughing way too loudly at every joke Nico didn’t get? With his knee pressing against Nico’s, radiating sunlight through his skin? It wasn’t Nico’s fault. Will was just too much. In a good way. In a way that made him bore his eyes into the carpet to quell his blushing face. 

Really, it wasn’t his fault. 

“Hey, are you still paying attention?” Will asked, tapping his knee. 

Nico looked up. Will had that dumb smile again. “Hm?” 

“It’s been twenty minutes, do you want to keep watching?” 

Nico swallowed his pride.  _ Anything to be with you, _ a small voice from the back of his head said. He gave it a roundhouse kick. “Oh, sure.” 

Will’s dumb smile grew into a grin. “Great. See, I told you you would like it.” 

Nico, against his will, gave a smile back. Suddenly, he felt his hand burn. He ignored it, but it persisted. It felt like someone was painting fire on his wrist. Out of the corner of his eye, he gave it a look. 

_ See, I told you you would like it. - William Andrew Solace, March 13, 2020.  _

It felt like someone was grabbing his throat. His jaw dropped to the floor but he quickly picked it back up before Will noticed.  _ A soulmate mark.  _

Nico went through the five stages of grief. First: this had to be a joke. His eyes were playing tricks on him. There is no way- no absolute fucking way- that William  _ Andrew  _ Solace could be his soulmate. He glows and watches Star Wars and has the loudest laugh in the room. There is no possibility that he could be Nico’s soulmate. 

Second:  _ Will!?  _ The same Will that kept him in a high security prison (read: the infirmary) after the war? The same Will that won’t let go of his old Mythomagic obsession? The Fates must really have it out for him. What a sick joke, pairing the son of death with the best healer in camp. Aphrodite must be cackling. 

Third: Nico tentatively ran his thumb along his wrist. Was it just an ink stain and his eyes were playing tricks on him? The mark stayed, so he tried to rub it. Nothing changed. He rubbed it til it was red. It was still there. 

Fourth: Could he ever talk to Will again? Could he even stay at camp? What if the feeling isn't mutual? Nico could probably spend a few months in the Underworld with his father. Will definitely wouldn’t want to talk with him anymore if he knew. No more impromptu movies, no more long nights spent playing stupid board games in the infirmary, no more- 

Nico was saved from the fifth stage of grief by a sudden weight on his shoulder. Will had laid his head on him, watching the movie with lazy eyes. Nico quickly hid his wrist and stared directly ahead. He forced himself to focus on the screen instead of the heat climbing his neck. (It didn’t work.) 

What was he going to do?    
  


  
  


Nico finished the movie. In fact, he finished the entirety of the Star Wars trilogy with Will within the week. He was surprised with how good it was, but, in truth, he couldn’t tell you the plot. He spent that week watching Will as he always did. 

And the mark never went away. (Nor did the skeletal butterflies.) 

He hid it with layers of bracelets and long sleeves. He was kept awake at night with the fears of Will seeing it. What would he say? How would he explain that the date was two months ago? 

All he could do was hide it. So that’s what he did. That’s what he planned to do for as long as he possibly could. Which was why his heart stopped beating when Will asked to talk to him in private. 

Nico had never had a private conversation with anyone before, let alone his soulmate. Nico ran through his memories with Will over the past two months, scanning for any possibility for Will to see his mark. There was none he could tell, so why was Will leading him to the lake after the campfire, when everyone was supposed to be heading to bed? 

“So I’ve been meaning to tell you something,” Will began once they reached the lake. They sat on the pier, legs dangling into the water. Nico’s heart was beating out of his chest. Was he  _ sure  _ his mark wasn’t just a stubborn ink stain? He rubbed it absentmindedly. Nope, not coming off. Shit. “I’ve been meaning to tell you for a while actually, but I couldn’t find the courage.” 

Will seemed nervous. Nico had never seen him this nervous before. It wasn’t the anxiety he had shown in the infirmary, when Nico was fading back in November. It was new, and Nico didn’t know what to do with it. It felt like someone had thrust him a grenade and now he had to detonate it. (He really didn’t want Will to explode. He wanted to hold him together. Which makes him an absolute sap, and he hates it.) 

“What’s wrong?” Nico asked, hand still gripping his wrist. Maybe it was a dead giveaway, but he didn’t care. 

“It’s nothing too bad,” Will answered. “Just… okay, I need you to promise me you won’t freak out.” 

Nico widened his eyes in surprise. “Why would I freak out?” 

“It’s not bad! It’s just-” Will took a deep breath and pulled his hands through his hair. The setting sun gave him an orange halo now. Nico ripped his eyes away. He needs to  _ focus.  _ “Okay. I’m going to rip this off like a band-aid.” Will scooted towards Nico so that their thighs were pressed together and shoved his wrist in his lap. “Read it.” 

Nico couldn’t believe it. The dark words still shone in the dark. And the date- 

“November?” Nico breathed. His tongue felt thick, like it was coated in peanut butter. He wanted to touch it, to know it was real, but he kept his hands pressed against the pier. He was frozen in the dark. He couldn’t even look at Will-  _ his soulmate.  _

“I hope it’s okay,” Will said. He took his wrist back to hold his hands up in surrender. “I just couldn’t- I didn’t want to hide it anymore. I’m in love with you, Nico. You’re more than just my closest friend. You don’t have to say anything back, but- gods, I don’t know what I’m saying. I’m just really, truly, madly in love with everything about you,” he said without pausing to breathe. His hands were shaking. What would Nico say? 

“This is what made you fall in love with me?” Nico settled for. “ _ You’re glowing?”  _

“Look, I couldn’t control it. I was just so worried about you, and I realised that I couldn’t-” 

“Stop.” Nico took a breath. This was not how he expected any of this private conversation to go. If he had his way, he would have kept those bracelets tightly wrapped around his wrist. But Will Solace kept doing strange things with his head, and those eyes, filled with anxiety and possibility, made him slip off those bracelets. 

“Nico?” Will asked once he realised. Nico lifted his sleeve, and his mark got its first chance to breathe. 

Nico thought Will’s face would break from the smile he gave him. His heart might have melted, too, from the sound of Will’s beautiful laugh echoing through the lake. “You’re kidding,” he said, taking Nico’s hand and touching the mark.  _ “March!”  _

“It was when you made me watch Star Wars,” Nico remembered. (Like he could ever forget.) Will threw his head back for a full belly laugh. Tears of mirth might have formed in his eyes. 

“You don’t know what a  _ relief  _ this is,” he said. “I swore, I always thought this- we couldn’t happen. But look!” He pressed his wrist against Nico’s so their soulmate marks aligned. “We’re soulmates.” 

Nico felt a smile tugging his face until he couldn’t hide it and gave in. He let himself stare into Will  _ (his soulmate’s)  _ eyes and smile. 

“I can’t believe it either,” Nico whispered. 

“Can I kiss you?” Will asked. They were already only an inch apart. They might have well. 

Kissing Will was like kissing the sun. He emitted a soft warmth that Nico let himself melt into. He tasted like tangerines- had Will eaten tangerines today? Sickly sweet. Nico placed his hand on Will’s cheek and felt the other lean in. 

Nico didn’t know how long it was until they pulled away, but the sun had already nested itself under the horizon. He stared at Will in the glow of the lake, heart skipping every other beat. 

“Hello, soulmate,” Will said with his trademark dumb smile. 

Nico laughed. “Hello, soulmate.” 

**Author's Note:**

> i've never seen star wars so i hope i gave yall good rep 
> 
> thanks for reading! you can keep up with my work on my tumblr proffessorrjlupin.tumblr.com


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